Effect of probiotics and functional foods and their use in different diseases

The use of functional foods (probiotics and prebiotics) has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment or control of several diseases. Further well designed trials to examine the effects of different probiotic components are required. It is important to establish separate functions and to gain further insight into the underlying mechanisms that include competitive exclusion and modification of colonic microflora. For a very long time Russians have used kefir for the treatment of a wide range of illnesses. This paper attempts to review the use of probiotic and functional foods in different diseases, with a special emphasis on kefir, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.